CHAPTER 11

Break Out of the Girls’ Club

by Whitney Johnson

“There’s a woman you have to meet,” a male CEO said to me during a recent meeting.

“She sounds terrific,” I responded. “I love meeting interesting people. Any men you’d like me to meet?”

“Aren’t you married?”

“Sure am,” I said. “Happily.”

We both chuckled.

I then clarified, “In my experience, men have more power than women.”

He agreed. “It’s not a level playing field.”

“Ergo, if a man with 500 people in his network, likely skewing male, only connects me with women he knows, then my power, or ability to get things done, is diminished,” I explained.

As blogger Harris O’Malley writes in his online piece “Nerds and Male Privilege,” “The reason why male privilege is so insidious is because ...

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